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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Infrastructure as a Service
  4. Operating Systems
  5. CentOS vs RancherOS

CentOS vs RancherOS

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

RancherOS
RancherOS
Stacks104
Followers158
Votes3
GitHub Stars6.4K
Forks654
CentOS
CentOS
Stacks13.8K
Followers9.0K
Votes53

CentOS vs RancherOS: What are the differences?

Introduction: 
CentOS and RancherOS are both popular operating systems used in various applications, but they have distinct differences that set them apart in terms of features and functionalities.

1. **Architecture**: CentOS follows a traditional approach with a full-blown operating system that contains various system packages and components, whereas RancherOS is designed to be minimalist with only essential components needed to run containers. This difference in architecture makes RancherOS lightweight and suitable for containerized environments.
2. **Containerization**: CentOS is not specifically designed for containerization but can host containers with additional configuration and setup. In contrast, RancherOS is built with containerization in mind and provides a container-centric environment that simplifies the deployment and management of containers. This makes RancherOS more efficient for container-based workloads.
3. **Updates**: CentOS follows a regular release cycle with updates and patches being rolled out periodically. On the other hand, RancherOS follows an atomic update model where the entire OS is updated as a single unit, ensuring consistency and reliability in the system. This approach makes RancherOS more predictable and less prone to update-related issues.
4. **User Interface**: CentOS comes with a traditional command-line interface and graphical user interface options for system administration. In contrast, RancherOS primarily relies on a minimalistic command-line interface, focusing on simplicity and ease of use for container management tasks. This design choice caters to users who prefer a streamlined and efficient interface.
5. **Configuration Management**: CentOS uses traditional configuration tools like systemd and NetworkManager for system management and network configuration. Meanwhile, RancherOS leverages cloud-config for system configuration, enabling users to define settings in a declarative manner that can be easily version-controlled and reproduced. This difference offers more flexibility and scalability in managing system configurations.
6. **Resource Efficiency**: Due to its minimalistic design and focus on containerization, RancherOS typically consumes fewer resources such as memory and disk space compared to CentOS. This makes RancherOS more efficient in resource utilization, especially in environments where resource constraints are a concern.

In Summary, CentOS and RancherOS differ significantly in architecture, containerization focus, update mechanisms, user interface, configuration management, and resource efficiency, catering to different needs in various environments.

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Advice on RancherOS, CentOS

Jerome/Zen
Jerome/Zen

Software Engineer

Aug 2, 2020

Decided

Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.

CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

RancherOS
RancherOS
CentOS
CentOS

It makes it simple to run containers at scale in development, test and production. By containerizing system services and leveraging Docker for management, the operating system provides a very reliable and easy to manage containers.

The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code.

Lightweight; Rancher Integration; Kuberenetes Integration;Minimalist OS;Comprehensive System Services;Improved Security
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
6.4K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
654
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
104
Stacks
13.8K
Followers
158
Followers
9.0K
Votes
3
Votes
53
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 3
    System-docker
Pros
  • 16
    Stable
  • 9
    Reliable
  • 9
    Free to use
  • 6
    Has epel packages
  • 6
    Good support
Cons
  • 1
    Yum is a horrible package manager
Integrations
Linux
Linux
Docker
Docker
Rancher
Rancher
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to RancherOS, CentOS?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Docker Swarm

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Debian

Debian

Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.

Portainer

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux

A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

Fedora

Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system.

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